Worcester County To Provide $100K To Area Food Pantries

SNOW HILL – The Worcester County Commissioners agreed to give $100,000 to local food pantries.

Rather than participate in a state program that would have distributed aid based on zip code, the commissioners agreed to give $100,000 to local organizations that worked to feed the hungry.

“Worcester County can take care of Worcester County,” Commissioner Chip Bertino said. “For the state to come down here and tell us how we’re supposed to allocate, and discriminate against one zip code over another zip code, I just have a real problem with it. I’d just rather us handle it by ourselves.”

At a meeting Tuesday, the commissioners were presented with a request from the Worcester County Department of Social Services to apply to participate in the Maryland Summer SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) initiative. The state program, which requires matching funds from the county, is intended to reduce food insecurity during the months children are not in school. The state has $200,000 set aside to provide SNAP benefits, which would consist of an extra $30 added to EBT cards of participating households in June, July and August and $10 extra in December.

Bertino was quick to express reservations about the program, which he said was based on the unfair funding formula the county was burdened with. He said Worcester County would be required to match 50% of the grant while Wicomico County would only have to match 5% and Somerset would only have to match 4%. He also said he wasn’t sure the extra funding would actually result in more food for local children.

“Would this grant money get to the people we want it to get to?” he said.

Ellen Payne of the Worcester County Department of Social Services said that the funding would be applied to a family’s EBT card.

“One would assume children would get the food but there’d be no way to guarantee what the parent is actually doing with their EBT card,” she said.

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